Kirkland Products

Kirkland Handheld Emulsifier™

This is a research instrument originally designed for preparing Freund's water-in-oil (w/o) vaccine adjuvants to replace the syringe/double-hubbed needle method.

The latter method required more than an hour to produce 10mL of adjuvant which still had a drop size exceeding one micron. Using the Kirkland Emulsifier, 10mL could be prepared in less than one minute with the following evaluation: "All of these emulsions were carefully examined in 20 random fields under the oil immersion lens of a light microscope for drop sizes and size distribution. All ranged uniformly from invisible (less than 0.16 microns) to 0.5 microns in diameter with no apparent pools of free oil or aqueous phase."

The Kirkland Emulsifier™ has the following features:

• Easily and rapidly processes liquids to form o/w and w/o emulsions.
• Homogenizes, deaggregates, and suspends drugs, pigments, and many other materials with simple hand pressure and two syringes; no external power source required.
• Disrupts many types of tissue cells for component separation (e.g., cell membrane fraction and/or extraction). One laboratory reported that they used the Emulsifier "to process a 0.7mL sample of BT474 human breast cancer cells; one pass required just a few seconds. Resulting product showed 100% cell breakage with essentially no loss of product when Emulsifier was flushed with 0.5mL of saline."
• Unit can be disassembled in less than one minute for quick and easy cleaning.
• Pressures up to 1000psig are attainable by hand and can be adjusted with spring tension control feature.
• With tubing and luer fittings, 100mL volumes can be processed in approximately 5 minutes; procedure can be automated with pneumatically powered actuator accessory for processing larger volumes (e.g., 1 liter or more).
• Essentially a closed system with minimal chance for air, particulate, or microbial contamination or product loss. Unlike stirrer-type homogenizers, all product is passed through the high pressure, high shear area during processing.
• No heat generation, aerosolization, or protein-denaturization during processing; Unit can be heated or cooled for thermosensitive ingredients.
• Machined from high-grade stainless steel with fluoroelastomer o-ring seals; can be chemically disinfected as well as steam, ethylene oxide, or heat sterilized.
• Bypass feature in one of the emulsifiers allows repeated recycling where required.
• Used by universities, pharmaceutical corporations, and government agencies for work with suspensions, cell disruption, and emulsions including AIDS vaccine research.